The Grand Tour more popular than Game of Thrones, to pirates at least

- Most illegally downloaded TV show ever

- Downloaded 7.9 million times

Amazon's The Grand Tour is reported the most illegally downloaded TV show of all time, beating Game of Thrones to the unwanted pinnacle of the piracy charts.

Data analyst Muso told the Daily Mail that the first episode alone had been illegally downloaded 7.9 million times. In comparison, one of the previous record holders, Game of Thrones season four episode seven, was illegally downloaded 1.5 million times in a similar time frame.

Episode two of The Grand Tour was downloaded 6.4 million times, while episode three was pirated 4.6 million times.

Torrenters in the UK have been the most active, with the country making up 13.7 per cent of the overall download total.

Amazon is yet to reveal its official, legal viewing figures for The Grand Tour but did reveal that it the first episode was the "biggest show premiere ever on Amazon Prime Video, breaking records around the world."

Even just counting those who have seen it illegally, Clarkson, May and Hammond have trounced their old programme. The first episode of the new Top Gear was watched by 4.3 million viewers, with the second dipping to 2.8 million.

Muso chief Chris Elkins was taken aback by the figures. "It is the most illegally downloaded programme ever. It is off the scale in terms of volume," he said.

"It has overtaken every big show, including Game Of Thrones, for the totals across different platforms. We monitor thousands of campaigns and this one really stands out."